A letter composed by Dr Alice Prochaska, Somerville College Principal, was published in the Daily Telegraph on 20 June.
The letter was written in response to an article by Charles Moore, former editor of the Telegraph, Margaret Thatcher’s biographer and a recent speaker at Somerville College. Moore recounted the University of Oxford’s 1985 decision to reject the proposal to award an honorary degree to the then Prime Minister and expressed pleasure at the Said Business School recently naming a new building after her.
Dr Prochaska explained that Lady Thatcher’s relationship with Somerville “was warm and close throughout her adult life” and welcomed the Said Business School’s decision.
Somerville College built its own Margaret Thatcher Centre in 1991, and awards funds to support students who demonstrate excellence and are in need of support, as it did to Margaret Thatcher herself when she was an undergraduate.